That same night I kept going. My eyelids grew heavy as I continued guiding the wire and spinning the wheel alone. The reddish shine of the wire blurred in my vision as my head bobbed and I fought to keep everything going perfectly.

  As soon as I was done, I straightened myself and stretched. Sickly pops came out of my body echoing through the tower. My spine uncurling like a rusted spring, while my sternum cracked, sharp piercing sounds as I was suddenly overcome with relief.

  I left out wires for the coupling and got ready for the most difficult part. Making the brushes and soldering the wire ends together. Slowly, counting the wires and making sure not to mistakenly combine ends from different magnets.

  I used a small, tapered iron rod heated to a white-glow in the forge to fuse the wire ends. It was a delicate, frustrating job; one slip and I’d melt the delicate copper or burn through the resin insulation. I pressed the wires into thin plates until they bonded into a single conductive path. My eyes stung from the tiny plumes of ozone and scorched resin.

  I used a part of the remaining free wire to make a switch and another to make the brushes needed to maintain the current in the rotor. The brushes were placed above and below the rotor’s endings, ensuring that the rotor would almost always have maximum pull.

  To get everything else I cut the remaining wire in ten segments. I twisted them together and poured melted resin on top, ensuring full insulation, then added some on the rotor. Like this, there’d be zero chance of any electric arcs or electrocution.

  I coupled the new cables to the generator and to the newly made motor. I poured aether in the generator and the rotor started to spin, faster and faster, the wood cracked and screeched as the rotor shook. The pitch of the motor suddenly changed.

  Before I could react, smoke rose above the motor, gray wisps curling and spreading a sharp, burnt smell of hard wood. I hit the switch to disconnect the circuit and stopped pouring aether, yet the damage was already done, the grey haze clear reminder of it.

  I rushed to check what was going on. The rotor’s supports were blackened, showing signs of burning, small embers shone at the ends of the fibers. Some of the wooden cylinders in the wood bearings were gone, scattered on the base of the motor.

  ‘Wood bearings won’t do it seems… Unless I add a resistive switch to reduce the voltage going in. It seems to spin too fast for the wood bearing. But it worked…’ I looked at the remains of the rotor holders. ‘I’ll probably have to make some roller and start making steel bearings.’

  Sleep found me quick that day, claiming my consciousness as soon as I laid down.

  Next day I woke up with an aching body filled with energy. It was the good kind of pain. Today the first order of business was to get started on the slip ring of iron. With the time until the combat class I had to get things ready.

  I got myself a small piece of cast iron, cut from an ingot after heating it and got to work refining it into steel. My hammer fell rhythmically, lengthening the piece, making it thinner, for me to fold it and start the process anew.

  Watching the layers grow thinner, tighten and spew out incandescent impurities that cracked and crumbled under the strikes was something I could never get tired of. Between the sharp high pitched clangs of my hammer I heard a deeper, more resonant one. Someone opened the gate.

  “Cato? I’m here to talk.” A familiar voice came from behind.

  “Yeah, yeah… Well I need to keep working so… Just come here and we’ll talk over my hammering?” I answered Cassia.

  “What are you doing now? It doesn’t look like you are working for a weapon… You’re folding that too chaotically!”

  “As if you’d know about folding iron.” I rolled my eyes bringing the hammer down as if to punctuate my sentence.

  “No, I don’t. But I saw you work before.”

  “You guessed right for what’s worth, this is not for a blade.” I paused and brought my hammer down two more times. “But enough of this. What did you want to talk about?”

  “Those two will join in our team, they did not object or anything. Yet, I’m doubtful that they’re trustworthy.”

  “I mean they are idiotic but… I doubt they will try to cross you again after you trashed them.”

  “I guess…”

  “I doubt anyone would dare cross you after you beat them. You’re ruthless.” I continue assured of her ability to be… convincing.

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  “Even if you do.” She turned towards the back of the tower and started walking. “That doesn’t mean I do. They already crossed the...” She stopped dead in her tracks. “That’s new… What is it?” She pointed towards the training stand.

  “That’s a training dummy. Go on, kick one of its arms. Don’t use aether, but otherwise go full force.” I answered, while a small smile played on my lips.

  “I’ll take you up on that.” She stretched and stepped closer to the dummy Every three steps she took; a clang of my hammer marked a beat. I kept moving my gaze in between the piece of iron and her.

  She punched one of the arms of the upper section. The other two sections spun. The lower one swept her legs while the middle bar impacted her shoulder. She fell flat on the ground, the air knocked out of her in a loud ‘oomph’. She stood there, lying down, below the arms of the lower level for a short while.

  A low growling sound came out of her as she slowly picked herself up. “I can see a guy the doesn’t seem to stop playing tricks no matter how much I beat him.” Her feet thudded on the ground as she approached me.

  “That’s because you can’t beat me for real.” I say smugly. “Besides why’d you hit something you knew nothing about with all your strength? I was expecting you to get scared by the moving parts, not thrown to the ground.” I spoke in a condescending tone and her shoulders slumped a little.

  “Joking, I totally expected you to just smack it with all your strength… You should’ve seen yourself.”

  “Why, you!?” She leaped at me.

  I jumped back. “Now, now… You wouldn’t want to trash your teammate before class right?” I ask trying to maintain a deep serious tone, but half of me is still amused by her fall.

  “Ha… Why’d you even make something like that?” Her shoulders slumped.

  I walked back to my anvil and grabbed back the tongs. I took the metal piece I was working with and put it back in the fire to heat up again. I settled my hammer on the anvil and walked to the training dummy.

  “Come, why are you just standing there?” I called out to Cassia. “It’s a device made so that someone can train their reaction speed to be as good as their strength. Well, almost… This is still slower than it can be, I’ll upgrade it in the future at some point…”

  I hit one of the arms of the middle section and blocked the other two by moving my leg and hand. “See? It’s so I can train alone.”

  “Yeah, but… don’t your reaction times need to be above your strength?” She asked.

  “I don’t know about that… Anyway, that’s what the thing does. Other questions?”

  “Can I use it?”

  “Sure, I mean… The more it’s used, the less force it will lose too.”

  “Sweet!” She started kicking and blocking or counter punching…

  ‘Such a fights junkie…’ I thought as I checked on the steel in the forge. I took it out and prepared to beat it again.

  “We could actually train together, no?”

  “Hm? What do you mean?”

  “Like fighting outside of combat class? This thing is great and all, but it will get very repetitive at some point, no? Not exactly good for fighting training.”

  “I guess…”

  “Magnar could join too!” She said her enthusiasm growing.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy there… Have you ever tried to fight someone bigger than you without aether?”

  “I did, why?”

  “Didn’t it ever occur to you that it’s harder?”

  “I mean sure, but once I used a proper stance even if the guy beat me, he ended up with injuries worse than those who were at the same size, so…”

  “Yes, and how badly were you injured? Do I need to explain you how non aether combat with Magnar that is twice our size is not a good idea?”

  She raised her hands in defeat. “Point taken. I just thought you’d be more likely to agree, or more enthusiastic about it.”

  “Look, I agree to good ideas, not to stuff that’s bound to get me in a world of trouble or pain.”

  “Then?”

  “Sure, sure…” I waved my hand dismissively then focused back on refining my piece of metal.

  Before heading to combat class, I managed to finish the bearing rings and remake the motor. It still used wooden cylinders, but it was supposed to be smoother. Cassia joined me too for the test run. I poured aether in the rotor.

  “Be ready to be amazed! One, two, three! Power up!” The generator buzzed as its silk threads started to float, tensing away from the core. The rotor started spinning, shaking slightly, a rhythmic thumping turned into a continuous whine as the wooden shaft began to spin. A bit of smoke rose from the supports.

  “Is that supposed to happen?” Cassia asked backing away.

  “Not really, but also, yes?” I shrugged. “It should stop soon however.”

  Hearing my answer lacking confidence, Cassia took even more steps back. The smoke soon stopped, just as I hoped it would. The motor continued to go without any issues, although the generator really started to heat up. I stopped pouring aether.

  “What do you think?” I asked, expecting some amazement and excitement.

  “What should I think?”

  “Like, that it’s amazing?”

  “I don’t see how it could be used…”

  “It could make a carriage move without horses! And many other things too! How can you not be excited?” I my tone rose in intensity.

  “What’s wrong with horses?” Cassia’s head fell on one side, and she looked at me inquisitively.

  “Oh, never mind… We should get going…” I walked towards the gate, looking at the ground. My shoulders were slumped, pressed by the weight of unmet expectations

  We walked slowly side by side to the combat class. I was out of it until the fight began and I got someone to punch. ‘Is it possible to go fist-happy?’ I looked at the guy at my feet who was crawling away. He wasn’t badly injured, I made sure to avoid that this time, but as he was a body type I did not hold back on delivering pain.

  Later that evening I returned to the tower and sat down in meditation. My earlier disappointment replaced by complete focus on the movements within, the microscopic revolutions with which I was slowly refining the array.

  Two months later

  The aether hummed, flowing like a raging river, charging like a furious bull through my body while I took it by the horns directing it. The array was slowly shifted under my intent while the intensity of the flow grew. Then for the first time I felt it. A hum rippled through my flesh and bones.

  My body resonated with the array and the surrounding aether. The flood crashed down on me, like a hammer clanking as it hit iron on an anvil. My ears rang and my stomach turned. I shuddered, feeling cold despite the unexpected surge of aether.

  I clenched my teeth and held through, widening the flow. Slowly the phenomenon disappeared and I opened my eyes. Finally, my internal array was complete.